Vintage Jacksonville

Built in 1918 this ship was designed as a passenger liner but was taken by the Navy for use during WW I for troop transport and named the USS Santa Teresa.  After the war it was returned to it’s owners and operated commercially for the next 20 years as the SS Santa Teresa and then as the SS Kent.  The Army purchased the ship in 1941 and then renamed it the Ernest Hinds, converting it back to a troop ship.  It was then transferred to the Navy and was operated as the USS Kent.  After less than a year it was returned to the Army, again taking the name Ernest Hinds.  It functioned as a a transport ship in the Pacific until it was converted to a hospital ship in 1944 operating in this role just over a year before again returning to use as a transport ship until it was turned over to the U.S. Public Health Service in July of 1946.  This is when it found it’s way to Jacksonville where it served as a floating “Isolation Ward”.

More to the point, the ship spent the next 7 months tied up near where the CSX building stands today as a 500 bed inpatient facility for patients undergoing a 9 day venereal disease treatment regime.  It was one of three rapid treatment facilities in Florida replacing a facility near Ocala that was destroyed by fire.  Apparently at this point in history Florida sometimes led the nation in VD rates, credited to a combination of a large military population, tourists and the homeless taking advantage of the warm winter climate and a large number of migrant workers.  The projected case load for the hospital ship was to be 12,000 patients a year but the Jacksonville deployment was cut short due to a lack of funds, seeing it’s last patients in February of 1947.

Tags: 012583, Ernest Hinds, historic photograph, Hosptial Ship, navy, skyline, troop transport, Venereal Disease, vintage photography, waterfront

“This shows how the boat could sleep six. Of course you could not be too big and do that.  It pays to be young.” LS

This is one of many photos Loyd Sandgren shot for Jacksonville’s Borum Boat Company.

Tags: boat, Borum Boat, children, historic photographs, sleeping, vintage photogaphy

Remington Rand’s San Marco Blvd. window display in the early 1950’s advertising it’s new data storage technology Film-A-Record.  This technology made film based copies of printed documents to reduce record storage space (think microfilm at the library).  The poster at the right of the image shows 160 four drawer file cabinets full of documents that could have their contents reduced so that copies of the documents could be kept in one small film storage cabinet.

This was as Remington Rand, primarily a typewriter company acquired the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in 1950 and developed the next big thing in data processing and storage, the UNIVAC, one of the first main frame computers designed for business applications.

Tags: advertising, business, film-a-record, historic photograph, Remington Rand, San Marco Blvd., technology, vintage photography, window display

“Eddie Graham, weight 240lbs. and his wrestling partner Haystacks Calhoun, weight about 603 lbs. One night we went out to Beach Road Chicken Dinners and Haystacks ate 20 chickens.  In fact TV 4 came out and took some pictures of him with all the chicken bones about 15 inches high.  We went out to a wholesale grocery company and he weighed 670 lbs.  He was a great guy. In the 1960’s.” LS

Tags: Beach Road Chicken Dinners, Eddie Graham, Haystacks Calhoun, historic photographs, professional wrestling, vintage photography

“Picture taken at Lovegrove (now called University Blvd.) and Philips highway.  I was called by the insurance company to take pictures of the wreck.  This picture was taken moments before the man died.  About 1947.” LS

Tags: car wreck, death, fatal accident, historic photography, Lovegrove, Philips Highway, police, vintage photograph

Workers from the Huckins Yacht Corporation roll the Mystic VIII from their workshop off Jacksonville’s Lakeshore Blvd. to launch it in the Ortega River.  This 60 foot Atlantic model was ordered from Huckins in 1956 by Philip R. Mallory and delivered in 1957. Mallory started the P.R. Mallory Company in 1916 which began as a supplier of tungsten wire filaments for light bulb manufacturers. The company then went into electrical components and developed the miniature mercury battery which was sold for military electronics during World War II.  The battery component of the business later evolved into Duracell.

The Huckins Yacht Corporation started in Jacksonville in 1928 by founder Frank Pembroke Huckins.  Cindy Purcell, the granddaughter of Huckins and the third generation of the Huckins family to oversee the business was a generous resource for information on this yacht.  With the name of the yacht Purcell quickly came up with the original plans for the craft, documentation of ownership, service records and home ports.  For me the real thrill was seeing the two inch thick photo file on just this boat pulled from their extensive archives.  Within this file was another file labeled ‘Sandgren Photos’ which was a series of detail shots of the Mystic shot by Loyd Sandgren for Huckins which included their print of the above image.

According to Huckins’ records this was the first of three Atlantic model yachts built.  It was registered in Mystic Seaport, CT by Mallory.  The craft summered at Fishers Island, NY and wintered in Miami, FL returning to Jacksonville from time to time for service.  Originally wood hulled, it was later fiberglassed by Huckins.  The original owner died in 1975 and the boat changed hands.  The last time it was at the Huckins facility was in 1990, renamed Rebel.  It’s current whereabouts are unknown.

Tags: boat, Cindy Purcell, Duracell, Frank Pembroke Huckins, Huckins, Huckins Yacht Corporation, Lakeshore Blvd., Mystic, Ortega, Ortega River, Philip Mallory, Yacht

The window display at the Lane-Rexall for country music artist Eddy Arnold’s upcoming shows at Jacksonville’s Palace Theatre.  born in 1918 the Nashville sound singer had 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts and sold over 85 million records. He started his performing career in the 1930’s and gave his final concert in 1999, a day after his 81st. Birthday.  Arnold died in 2008 at the age of 89.

It looks like Arnold was going to make a personal appearance at the Lane-Rexall and one of the window signs advertises a “free photo with the first 1000 tickets sold here.”  Another sign in the center of this undated photograph spells his first name wrong.

There is a reflection in the window from the sign for The Darling Shop which was located on the ground floor of the Lynch Building at the intersection of Main and East Forsyth Streets.  Does anyone remember which street the Lane-Rexall was located on?

Update: We have placed the Lane-Rexall window on the West side of Forsyth St. near the intersection with Main Street.

Tags: advertising, country music, drug store, Eddy Arnold, historic photography, Lane Rexall, vintage photograph, window display

I can only guess that this is a civic organization giving sporting equipment to a youth group.  Anyone recognize any of the folks in the photo?

Tags: baseball, business men, historic photograph, men, vintage photography

A late 1950’s view of the St. James Building as the Cohen Brothers department store.  This Henry Klutho masterwork was completed Oct. 21, 1912 (making it 100 years old this year) and originally housed retail space on the lower floors and office space on the upper floors. It was the largest building in Jacksonville occupying an entire city block.  The use of the building as a May Cohens department store ended in 1987 after several other May Cohens stores opened in shopping centers outside of downtown Jacksonville’s core.  The building sat empty until it was purchased by the city, renovated and remodeled to function as Jacksonville’s City Hall building, reopening in 1998.

Tags: cars, Cohen Brothers, downtown, Duval Street, Henry Klutho, historic photographs, hogan street, May Cohens, shopping, St. James Building, vintage photography

Bob Feller, pitcher with Cleveland Indians pitching his book “How To Pitch” from the field of the old Wolfson Park baseball field.  The first addition of his this book came out in 1948.  Wolfson Park was built in 1955 and served as the city of Jacksonville’s minor league field until it was demolished in 2002, being replaced by The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. Feller passed away in December of 2010. You can see an earlier post of Feller here.

Tags: baseball, bob feller, crowd, historic photography, pitcher, sports, vintage photograph, wolfson park